Saturday, May 05, 2012

There's a particular colossal statue-head of Antinous–shown here–that is known as the "Mondragone Head," after an Italian villa which is near where it was found in the eighteenth century. It has been included in the corpus of recognized ancient Antinous statuary since not long after it was first discovered, and it remains such to this day, despite the fact that it does not even approximate the usual distinctive hairstyle of Antinous. It is said to have been based upon certain models of Apollon statuary. If there was a body to go with it, it would have been the largest statue of Antinous to have ever existed, most likely. It used to have eyes that were possibly some precious gem or another, so it is thought. I've always thought it is an awful lot like the Statue of Liberty–and if we think of Lady Liberty as a kind of localized form of Libertas (who may be related to Libera, who is the sister of Liber, who is generally thought equivalent of Bacchus/Dionysos, to whom Antinous was widely syncretized!), then that would mean this statue is sort of the "little brother" of Lady Liberty. But, I digress…

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